25 comments:

Anonymous
said...

What's even crazier is that the woman is "trying" to pay for her smokes in the pharmacy line.

Totally random, sort of, I am shocked by the number of my MD's that are heavy smokers. When you and your office smell strongly of smoke you must be a heavy smoker, or just got done smoking in an enclosed area before seeing me. I know for a fact that three of my doctors are frequent smokers. Don't get me wrong, you want too smoke go ahead, but don't badger a patient or threaten to "kick them out of your practice (I think it's a pretty reliable source)" for not complying.

-sigh-i don't know why but this reminds me of my teaching diet to diabetics days and then having them run out the door at the Health Dept on their breaks to buy giant Polar Cups from the polar cup truck.

Interesting phenomenon, isn't it? You spend money to consult a professional and then ignore his advice, but a random stranger's advice you follow. Is there some rational explanation for this tendency? Like, we all assume "professionals" always have ulterior motives?

Yes Anonymous, in the states most pharmacies are located inside grocery or discount department stores. Even freestanding drug stores typically sell a range of products including office supplies, a small selection of groceries, and cigarettes. Stores that sell exclusively pharmaceuticals and medical supplies are relatively uncommon.

I see this happen all too often in patient support groups. It's so hard not to haul off and throttle people like that woman sometimes. Patients get so disillusioned with medical professionals they end up putting more weight on the opinion of a lay person. Sad, really.

And ya, selling cigs in a pharmacy is weird. No pharmaceutical and medical supply only pharmacies here, but none of them sell cigarettes (for the same reason why you can't use a health card as ID to buy cigarettes).

Now, one chain would not let us pharmacy employees ring up beer and wine, either, but that was because we were not trained to do so by company rules. Morphine, on the other hand, was apparently no problem.

OTOH, a few years ago, I was picking up one of my diabetic pill refills at a pharmacy checkout during my lunch break. One of my co-workers had asked me to pick up a bottle of Coke-Cola for him, and the cashier refused to allow me to make the transaction, even though I explained that the soda was not for me. She said that nothing sugary would be checked out at any pharmacy register in that store. Her choice, so I had to make two transactions, which shortened my lunch break considerably.Having said that, Mr. Pill sounds rather gullible. Perhaps he would be interested in a wooden i-pod..., cheap.

Well, the patient could live in a town where no one gives a crap about anyone and the people in Walmart stand around a man turning blue and laying on the floor and telling anyone who wants to help, that they can't...

oh, that's funny. Drives me crazy when someone decides to ignore rational advice and follow the crazy recommendation of someone he just met because that person is the next door neighbor of his cousin's brother-in-law and that guy's wife read all about it on the internet.

In my state, you can't buy cigs or alcohol at the pharmacy (to answer some concerns. I thought it was a fairly common thing).

When I was in retail, we had a privacy window, but my biggest problem was a tech who would counsel patients before I got a chance to, with things like "This caused my cousin Leroy to lose his hearing and be committed to a mental institution, but you can take it." No matter how many times I told her it wasn't appropriate, she acted like I thought I was high and mighty when I asked her not to.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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